this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
245 points (100.0% liked)

News

30525 readers
2957 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/42447832

Malaysia emerged as a major destination for U.S. waste after China banned U.S. waste imports in 2018.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20250626132109/https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-06-26/malaysia-bans-us-plastic-waste-what-will-california-do


Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

top 36 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 14 points 12 hours ago

GOOD, STOP TAKING OUR TRASH! Make us deal with the problem and come up with a real long term solution, Tired of these short term "Solutions"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

We may need to find an actual solution to all that plastic.

But I'm hearing innovative new ideas in that field. One researcher has proposed an interesting solution, it's called "aluminum cans" it sounds crazy, and who knows if it could possibly work at scale, but it's a neat idea.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Aluminium cans have a plastic lining. We used to have glass bottles. That worked.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

Sure, but that plastic lining is a tiny amount of plastic, practically insignificant by mass.

And sure, glass works too, that's fine with me. But it's not simply better. It comes with the downsides of being heavier (requiring more energy to transport), less durable, and requiring more energy to recycle. It's a trade off.

Currently, aluminum has the highest rate of recycling of all beverage materials. So why not double down on the most successful packaging type in the history of recycling?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The argument against glass is the weight. It increases CO2 emissions from the transportation.

Waxed paper and cardboard seem like good options for non liquids.

I feel like refillable bottles would be amazing for stuff that doesn't perish.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

If only we had the technology to create some kind of light weight glass.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

Made from petroleum? I think we tried that.

But it's a good point, I wonder how glass bottles made from gorilla glass would hold up.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dump it in the nearest red state as a thank you for pushing so hard to elect a candidate who thought tariffs had no bad consequences .

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Shoving garbage to another country, while very american, isn't really a good solution to begin with.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 19 hours ago

Red state are in the same country

[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Good. We need to stop producing so much plastic waste.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

Good. We need to stop producing so much plastic ~~waste~~.

FTFY

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Put it on a bus and send it to a republican state.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Send it as raw materials to fortify trumps wall

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 day ago

They should never have started in the first place. Coming from a Malaysian.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You still do landfill in the US? That's so ... 20th century.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Which is crazy, because the country itself is more like the 18th century

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago

Ship it back to the manufacturers

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Plastic waste is a dilemma for the whole world. Unless its intended to become the fuel source for the next evolution of Earth's dominant global species of course.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Isnt plastic made from oil already?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Most plastics, some are organically sources

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

Yeah and fucking PLA (made from cornstarch) is marketed as "compostable" which is even worse for the environment because people feel like it gives them the free pass to toss it on the ground.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sink it in concrete blocks next to Lindberg field SanDiego international airport so they can finally expand it. But definitely don't add a trolley station anywhere near. Inconvenient transportation is why we travel. That and getting covid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

The Middletown stop on the blue line is out of service?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I just read about toxic tofu production in Indonesia (nearby country) that burns plastic as a primary fuel source to fry up tofu. We’re surrounded by plastics and have nowhere to put the waste.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Maybe use some that AI shit to engineer some microbes that can eat plastic. Or I dunno make less plastic waste?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

AI sure can fix this problem. "Sure, I can help with that. Here's your rhetorical web article about recycling actually being a sign of homosexuality or closeted femininty, aimed at 25 to 65 year old conservative men in your electorate, as requested. Let me know if you want any modifications".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Lol I think they’re already using the same technology that is used by AI to do biochemistry, so I didn’t mean “ask chatGPT.”

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sigh, just send it to us in Sweden, we'll burn in cleanly and recover energy from it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Does that work? I don't think you can burn plastic cleanly...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

You can it's just expensive and requires additional fuel.

It sometimes requires "reburning" the combustion exhaust at higher temperatures. But combustion can eventually break down the majority of molecules into something safe. And then if things still need to be removed from the exhaust, you can use processes similar to the catalytic converter in your car, but again, not cheap.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Interesting, but it does sound like they are burning the general waste left over after splitting for recycling. I.e. not a lot of plastic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

Well they're splitting recycling, but plastic, generally speaking is not recyclable. So it's the paper and metals that are being split off, the plastic goes in with everything else.

There are some plastics that are theoretically recyclable, but even that isn't really recycling is down-cycling turning a plastic into an interior plastic that isn't recyclable at all. Or repurposing and reusing a plastic, perhaps as pillow stuffing or melting it down with other things to make road paving material.

But the life of plastic is never a cycle, it's a path that can sometimes be extended a bit.